Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel (operators) are often required to carry the necessary EOD tools on their person for a long distance. This requirement may arise because the EOD work area is not easily accessible to vehicles or because vehicles are not available or for other reasons. In any event, the EOD tools and equipment must be small in size (or easily disassembled into a small size) and small in weight to enable carriage by an EOD operator.
In the case of buried explosive threats, the EOD operator often removes the explosive threat from the ground before disarming or otherwise neutralizing the threat. The explosive threat may be manually removed from the ground. Manual excavation may be accomplished by digging around the explosive threat using an ice ax, pick, shovel, human hands, probe, etc. These methods have a high risk of injury or death to the OED personnel. Thus, a method of removing the explosive threat from the ground where the OED operator is remote from the explosive threat is desired.
Many devices are known for lifting objects remotely from the ground, but most of the known devices are large and heavy and are not man-portable by one person. There are some known, man-portable remote removal devices. These conventional remote removal devices include tripods that are erected over the buried explosive device. First, a portion of the explosive device is manually uncovered. A lanyard or other connector (for example, a connector from a Hook and Line (HAL) EOD kit) is fixed at one end to the explosive device. The other end of the connector is fixed to the hub of the tripod or fed through a pulley that is fixed to the hub of the tripod. A pull line is connected to the hub of the tripod or to the connector that feeds through the pulley. The pull line is remotely pulled by one or more OED operators to lift the explosive device from the ground. In the case of an explosive device weighing up to 400 pounds, the conventional devices mechanically fail and do not lift the explosive device out of the ground.
A need exists for an apparatus and method for remotely lifting explosive devices from the ground.